Originally Posted by
gsoltso
There were times where I was frustrated, especially at LAX. Imagine a situation where you have approximately 20 passengers, all being held up by one person with a language barrier that I personally am unable to conquer with hand signals. This went on for about 10 minutes, until one passenger, spoke with me, then relayed the info to another passenger in an entirely different group, they then relayed the information to the original passenger, who then understood that their shoes were alarming the WTMD... Now imagine that by a few thousand interactions before lunch, and you have a fairly accurate representation of how the average day goes working for TSA in Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX. All of that frustration can create friction, especially for passengers that also have the language barrier - that is where the always be professional part comes in for TSOs.
(Emphasis mine).
Chollie's problem with the (apparently deliberate) TSA confusion over essential medication is a bigger issue that this, but all the same, this "language barrier" rubbish is ridiculous.
I have been (many times) through airport security in Bangkok, where I (and most of the other people in line) don't speak the local language, yet there was no delay because of a "language barrier". Same at Singapore. Hong Kong. Zurich. Rome. Tokyo. Osaka. Sao Paolo. Budapest. Amsterdam. Frankfurt. Munich. Milan. Abu Dhabi. Dubai. Never ever
ever seen a problem at these security checkpoint due to language problems.
See, non-US international airports figured out decades ago that being an "international airport" carried a tiny risk that there might, occasionally, be passengers from other countries who therefore don't speak the local language. (Shocking, I know.) They therefore took steps to have signs with pictures to demonstrate the checkpoint rules, and hired staff who, if they can't speak the passenger's language, at least could work effectively to make themselves understood. (Hint: speaking English really loud and really slow is NOT the solution.) One enormous part of this is that the rules are consistent from airport to airport, checkpoint to checkpoint, passenger to passenger, so passengers with any experience or even those who can watch the passengers in front of them in line have a pretty good idea what to expect. Yeah, I know that would demolish the whole "inconsistency" thing that TSA uses to cover its inability to train staff properly.
Apparently (but not surprisingly) LAX hasn't figured this out any of this yet. Not sure other US so-called international airports are any better.